Big Freedia (pronounced “FREE-da”), known as the Queen of Bounce, is at the forefront of the Bounce rap movement (a subgenre of hip-hop born out of New Orleans, known for its call and response style and lightening speed booty-shaking dance). Performing five out of seven nights in any given week with dancers she calls The Divas, Big Freedia’s show is nothing short of dazzling. She tours every city in America from New York to San Francisco and is always a favorite at festivals such as Electric Forest, Hangout Fest, FunFunFun Fest, SXSW, and Bonnaroo, among many others.

Big Freedia asserts that her (Freedia is a man, but uses the feminine pronoun for her stage persona) sexuality has little to do with her music. “I don’t see myself as a gay artist, but rather an artist who happens to be gay.”

Big Freedia has gone from a local New Orleans phenomenon to a national one over the past two years. After appearing in two episodes of HBO series ‘Treme’ [as herself] and in 2010, she released her debut EP on Scion A/V Presents: Big Freedia, produced by NOLA producer BlaqNmilD. The EP featured notables “Excuse” (prod. by Jeremy Bell) and “Almost Famous; earlier fan-favorites include “Gin in my System” (prod. by BlaqNmild), “Azz

Everywhere” (prod. by Blaza) and “Y’all Get Back Now” (prod. by BlaqNmild). Adding to her catalog, this year she released “Nah Who Mad” (prod. by BlaqNmild) and “Booty Whop,” (BlaqNmild & Thomas McElroy) and she was featured on Spank Rock’s Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar LP, on the track “Nasty.” In June of 2012, she was featured on “Peanut Butter” with singer-actor-model RuPaul.

Last year, Freedia made her television network debut on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” She appeared on “Last Call with Carson Daly,” “FADERTV,” “PITCHFORKTV,” Watch What Happens Live, and MSNBC with Melissa Harris Perry. She's been lauded in press outlets such as The New York Times, Buzzfeed, NY Post, Huffington Post Live, The Fader, RollingStone.com, SPIN, OffBeat, Chicago Reader, Columbia Spectator, Pheonix New Times, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, LA Weekly, BUST, among many other media outlets.

This year marked the debut of Big Freedia Queen of Bounce, the highly successful FUSE TV reality show.

Raised on Josephine Street in uptown New Orleans, Big Freedia, born Freddie Ross, was raised by his mother, a hairdresser, and stepfather, a truck driver for Coca-Cola. When Freddie was 15, the family moved to a more upscale neighborhood in New Orleans. Freddie—along with his brother Adam and sister Crystal Ross—were immersed in music at home by their mother, who often sang along to her Gladys Knight and Patty LaBelle records around the house. But it was the Baptist church choir where a young Freddie flourished. ”My mother made sure I never missed practice,” recalls Freedia. It’s no wonder that by the time he was 18, Freedia moved from member to director of the choir.

A product of the hip-hop generation, Freedia was rocking RUN DMC, Salt ‘n Pepa and Adidas Shell Tops as a teenager. One night in 1991 he heard "Where Dey At" by MC T Tucker, (what many believe to be the first recorded Bounce track) and he was transfixed. After starting as a back-up dancer for Katey Red, a trail blazer in the Bounce movement, Freedia knew Bounce was his calling and eventually broke out on his own.

When Big Freedia is not on the road, she is in the studio recording her highly-anticipated debut LP out in 2014.

For all press inquiries please contact: Nicole Balin at (323) 651-1580 or nik@ballinpr.com